After narrowing the search for a new chief information officer to a list of five finalists, a commission formed by the University of Wisconsin is asking the public to provide feedback on the candidates before the final decision is announced.

The university’s CIO is responsible for overseeing technological initiatives throughout the campus and managing the university’s Department of Information Technology, UW spokesperson John Lucas said.

“This [position] would be important for any company, but is particularly important for the university as a major research institution with a huge emphasis on a very active [Information Technology],” Lucas said. “This person would run things you see on a daily basis like WiscMail and WiscCal, but also things you don’t really see or think about like maintaining the campus network.”

Lucas said the CIO is an essential element to UW as a research institute because he or she would also assist the research community through addressing researchers’ needs for their individual projects.

UW engineering physics professor Jake Blanchard, the search committee’s chair, said they’re looking for an individual who would be able to help think about the campus in a big picture, expanding on the position’s previous responsibilities from only overlooking DoIT up until recently.

“The one thing that the committee is focused on the most is looking for a CIO that will help think about the ideas campus-wide instead of just at DoIT,” Blanchard said. “Having a CIO is relatively new here, so the focus is gradually transitioning away from the idea of a DoIT director – that’s the one thing we’ve discussed more than any other.”

More than 100 prospects originally submitted their application into the hiring pool, all of whom were considered by the 17-member commission, Blanchard said. The finalists made it through multiple rounds of assessments and interviews.

The group of finalists will now be passed onto UW Provost Paul DeLuca, though the UW community will be asked for input following public presentations led by each of the candidates in the coming weeks.

“We’re looking for feedback not only from students, but from everyone around the campus to listen to the presentations and provide feedback on them, which the chancellor and provost would take into account for hiring,” Lucas said.